The β Pictoris protoplanetary system. XIV : Simultaneous observations of the Ca II H and K lines; evidence for diffuse and broad absorption features

The sporadic circumstellar spectroscopic variations detected since 1985 towards β Pic have been formerly interpreted as the result of the evaporation of small cometary-like bodies in the vicinity of the star. To further investigate the physics of the infalling bodies, we developed a new instrumentation able to monitor simultaneously the variability of the two Ca II H and K lines, in order to give access to different parameters than the ones previously surveyed. Because the instrument, whose resolving power is of the order of 10000, is attached to small size telescopes (one meter class) via a fiber link, the new information is related to a more continuous survey of the lines variability over few weeks periods